Thursday, March 14, 2013

TV Bible Series Perpetuates Mythology

Scene from The Bible

A lot of people have been watching the new miniseries on the
Bible.The first episode of the 10-part
series drew 13.1 million viewers.That
was the most people to watch a telecast this year, but hardly a record.More people saw Roots, the last episode of MASH and a host of other programs over
the years, but it’s still a good result.

They got to see Noah’s Ark, Abraham and Moses.Reviewers said the depictions were very
realistic.

How could anyone know that?

Historians don’t.They agree there’s nothing historically accurate in the Bible until the
time of David.He doesn’t show up until
Episode 2 in this series.

Artist's view of the famous writing

No one dismisses biblical history lightly.After all, billions of people throughout
history have accepted the stories as accurate re-tellings of the distant
past.However, starting in the 1700s,
the Bible has been thoroughly studied from an historical perspective and -- as
the handwriting on the wall noted in another context-- “found wanting.”

The first studies looked at the texts.Jean Astruc, a physician in 1700s France,
figured out that the Old Testament had at least four different books that had
been tied together by later editors.He
identified them as J, E, P and D.J
stood for Jehovah (the misspelling of Yahweh), the god cited in that portion; E
for Elohim, the god of a second unit; P for priestly codes; and D for
Deuteronomy.

The JEPD theory has stood up to all studies and has helped
explain duplicate stories of creation, Noah’s flood, Jacob’s dual names and
David’s ascendency etc..Multiple ideas
were simply combined.

In addition, the research into word choice showed how these
various tales were merged over time to create, for example, the account of
Joseph being sold into slavery and then rising to power in Egypt.

Gilgamesh

Early documents were uncovered that contained stories used
as biblical sources, such as an Egyptian novel, prayers to other gods converted
to use for Yahweh, sagas like the Babylonian Gilgamesh that provided the
account of Noah, Sumerian legends that became the Garden of Eden and so on.

These once-familiar tales were edited by the Yahwists to
match up with their beliefs.

These studies were augmented by archaeology, which became
fashionable after Heinrich Schliemann excavated the ancient city of Troy in the
late 1860s.That inspired true believers
to think that the spade could turn up proof of biblical accounts.

It did just the opposite.Intensive research for more than 100 years did locate the Jericho of
Joshua’s day and other ancient sites, but provided only contradictory
evidence.For example, there never were
walls at Jericho to “come tumbling down,” a tale in episode 3 of the TV series.

No group of people lived in the Sinai Desert for 40 years or
for any length of time.Jerusalem was
very tiny in David’s day, not the impressive capital of any nation.In depth investigations into the Gospel
accounts of Jesus found that they contradict each other and contain virtually
no factual information.

The findings have been devastating to claims of biblical
inerrancy that in the 1970s, archaeologists abandoned the idea of uncovering
any supporting facts.The whole field of
Biblical Archaeology simply disappeared.

The end result has been television shows designed to
perpetuate myths in the guise of history, which is apropos considering the
topic.It’s exactly what the biblical
authors were doing: writing history to conform to their beliefs. The Roman
Catholic Church has conceded that point, agreeing that the Gospels only contain
the “author’s beliefs,” not history.

Burnett

Naturally, the folks behind the television show have let us
know that something beyond their ken has taken notice of their actions.Producer Mark Burnett (left) insists that “the hand
of God was on this: the edit came together perfectly, the actors came together
perfectly, it just comes to life.”

Need more proof of divine involvement? “Weird things
happened during filming,” he said. “Everybody would look at each other like, ‘Whoa.’”

For example, on a still night when Jesus and Nicodemus meet,
Jesus said, “The Holy Spirit is like the wind.” Burnett said, “At that moment,
a wind, like as if a 747 was taking off, blew his hair, almost blew the set
over and sustained for 20 seconds across the desert.”

Or a costume disappeared.“Four days later,” Burnett said, “a kid showed up from many, many, many
miles away, who had been seeking us through the desert to return (it) to us. He
didn’t know what it was why he should seek us, but he felt he had to return
it.”

Then, the fellow collecting snakes found 42 of them, rather
than the usual one or two, on the set where the cross was set up.

Wow.

Funny, but Burnett ignored what would have been a true
miracle – if anything slightly historically accurate had actually been depicted
on the screen.

Long-time
religious historian Bill Lazarus regularly writes about religion and religious
history.He also speaks at various
religious organizations throughout Florida.You can reach him at www.williamplazarus.net.He is the author of the famed Unauthorized
Biography of Nostradamus; The Last Testament of Simon Peter; The Gospel Truth: Where Did the Gospel
Writers Get Their Information; Noel:
The Lore and Tradition of Christmas Carols;and Dummies Guide to Comparative
Religion.His books are available on Amazon.com,
Kindle, bookstores and via various publishers.He can also be followed on Twitter.

You
can enroll in his on-line class, Comparative Religion for Dummies, at
http://www.udemy.com/comparative-religion-for-dummies/?promote=1

About Me

During his career, Bill has been a newspaper reporter, magazine writer/editor, advertising copywriter and writer/editor of NASCAR programs, among other jobs. He has won three international awards for stories and programs while working for International Speedway Corp. and was named 2000 Florida Feature Writer of the Year.
He has published four books to date and his writing has appeared in hundreds of local, regional, state and national publications.